ALBERTA – The province will be expanding available testing at continuing care facilities experiencing an outbreak of COVID-19 to help prevent the spread of the virus.
Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw announced Friday (April 17) that her team will be working with Alberta Health Services to expand the testing of residents and staff at continuing care facilities experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak to include asymptomatic residents and staff.
“It is not acceptable that elderly Albertans are being put at risk in a place where their health is supposed to be protected,” Hinshaw said. “We have put strong measures in place to limit the spread of infection at these facilities – We must do more.”
The province will not be doing daily testing of those in long-term care centres experiencing outbreaks, Hinshaw said, explaining that a focus will be placed on using testing as an additional tool at the beginning of an outbreak for early identification of cases.
The expanded testing will not replace or change any outbreak measures that have been established.
“Given that we now know people that may be infected with COVID-19 can potentially spread the illness before they show symptoms testing more residents and staff in continuing care facilities will help us prevent further infections and deaths,” Hinshaw said. “We’re focusing on contexts where there is a COVID outbreak because those are the setting where we have the highest chance of someone who has COVID.”
She cautioned that the testing in outbreak centres will be a “snapshot” in time and that lab resources are being used to strategically test and control the risk of the virus spreading.
Testing is one aspect of the provinces’ larger response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hinshaw said, adding that visitation, sanitation and personal protective equipment requirements will be “rigorously” followed at all times to help protect those most vulnerable to the virus in continuing care facilities.
There have been 239 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the province in the last 24 hours. Of these cases, 134 have been confirmed through lab testing and 105 are considered probable cases.
There are a reported 19 COVID-19 cases in Bow Valley with eight active cases and 12 recovered.
The province has identified a total of 2,397 COVID-19 cases.
Hinshaw said that the higher number of positive cases identified by the province is due to a combination of increased testing access and a surge in cases identified in multiple households liked to a meatpacking facility in High River. The facility accounts for 358 COVID-19 cases.
There have been no new deaths in Alberta and 1,124 people have recovered from the virus.
In the last 24 hours, the province has conducted 3,831 COVID-19 tests.
Hinshaw added that information on all confirmed outbreaks in the province will be provided online while protecting all personally identifiable information. Any outbreak sites will be informed before this information is made public online.
The surveillance information team is now back online following a disruption due to a power outage that occurred Tuesday (April 14) evening, Hinshaw said. The restoration will allow for better tracking of how the virus is spreading in communities and the identification of outbreaks as soon as possible.
“With increased testing, we will find more cases and that may bring new exposures at workplaces into view,” Hinshaw said. “This gives an opportunity to be sure that contact tracing and measures to prevent infection are put in place.”
Hinshaw said if one is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms that include cough, fever, runny nose, sore throat and shortness of breath they should immediately self-isolate and visit the Alberta Health Services online self-assessment tool to be referred for an appointment for testing. If one does not have access to the internet they can call 811 for a referral.
